Bel and the Dragon

1¹¹King Astyages was gathered to his fathers, and Cyrus the Persian received his kingdom.

2Daniel lived with the king, and was honoured above all his friends.

3Now the Babylonians had an idol called Bel, and every day twelve great measures of fine flour, forty sheep, and six firkins ¹²of wine were spent on it.

4The king honoured it and went daily to worship it; but Daniel worshipped his own God. The king said to him, “Why don’t you worship Bel?”

5He said, “Because I may not honour idols made with hands, but only the living God, who has created the sky and the earth, and has sovereignty over all flesh.”

6Then the king said to him, “Don’t you think that Bel is a living god? Don’t you see how much he eats and drinks every day?”

7Then Daniel laughed, and said, “O king, don’t be deceived; for this is just clay inside, and brass outside, and never ate or drank anything.”

8So the king was angry, and called for his priests, and said to them, “If you don’t tell me who this is who devours these expenses, you shall die.

9But if you can show me that Bel devours them, then Daniel shall die; for he has spoken blasphemy against Bel.” Daniel said to the king, “Let it be according to your word.”

10Now there were seventy priests of Bel, besides their wives and children. The king went with Daniel into Bel’s temple.

11So Bel’s priests said, “Behold, we will leave; but you, O king, set out the food, and mix the wine and set it out, shut the door securely, and seal it with your own signet.

12When you come in the morning, if you don’t find that Bel has eaten everything, we will suffer death, or else Daniel, who speaks falsely against us.”

13They weren’t concerned, for under the table they had made a secret entrance, by which they entered in continually, and consumed those things.

14It happened, when they had gone out, the king set the food before Bel. Now Daniel had commanded his servants to bring ashes, and they scattered them all over the temple in the presence of the king alone. Then they went out, shut the door, sealed it with the king’s signet, and so departed.

15Now in the night, the priests came with their wives and children, as they usually did, and ate and drank it all.

16In the morning, the king arose, and Daniel with him.

17The king said, “Daniel, are the seals whole?” He said, “Yes, O king, they are whole.”

18And as soon as he had opened the door, the king looked at the table, and cried with a loud voice, “You are great, O Bel, and with you is no deceit at all!”

19Then Daniel laughed, and held the king that he should not go in, and said, “Behold now the pavement, and mark well whose footsteps these are.”

20The king said, “I see the footsteps of men, women, and children.” Then the king was angry,

21and took the priests with their wives and children, who showed him the secret doors, where they came in and consumed the things that were on the table.

22Therefore the king killed them, and delivered Bel into Daniel’s power, who overthrew it and its temple.

23In that same place there was a great dragon which the people of Babylon worshipped.

24The king said to Daniel, “Will you also say that this is of brass? Behold, he lives, eats and drinks. You can’t say that he is no living god. Therefore worship him.”

25Then Daniel said, “I will worship the Lord my God; for he is a living God.

26But allow me, O king, and I will kill this dragon without sword or staff.” The king said, “I allow you.”

27Then Daniel took pitch, fat, and hair, and melted them together, and made lumps of them. He put these in the dragon’s mouth, so the dragon ate and burst apart. Daniel said, “Behold, these are the gods you all worship.”

28When the people of Babylon heard that, they took great indignation, and conspired against the king, saying, “The king has become a Jew. He has pulled down Bel, slain the dragon, and put the priests to the sword.”

29So they came to the king, and said, “Deliver Daniel to us, or else we will destroy you and your house.”

30Now when the king saw that they trapped him, being constrained, the king delivered Daniel to them.

31They cast him into the lion’s den, where he was six days.

32There were seven lions in the den, and they had been giving them two carcasses and two sheep every day, which then were not given to them, intending that they would devour Daniel.

33Now there was in Jewry the prophet Habakkuk, ¹³who had made stew, and had broken bread into a bowl. He was going into the field to bring it to the reapers.

34But the angel of the Lord said to Habakkuk, “Go carry the dinner that you have into Babylon to Daniel, in the lions’ den.”

35Habakkuk said, “Lord, I never saw Babylon. I don’t know where the den is.”

36Then the angel of the Lord took him by the crown, and lifted him up by the hair of his head, and with the blast of his breath set him in Babylon over the den.

37Habakkuk cried, saying, “O Daniel, Daniel, take the dinner which God has sent you.”

38Daniel said, “You have remembered me, O God! You haven’t forsaken those who love you!”

39So Daniel arose and ate; and the angel of God set Habakkuk in his own place again immediately.

40On the seventh day, the king came to mourn for Daniel. When he came to the den, he looked in, and, behold, Daniel was sitting.

41Then the king cried with a loud voice, saying, “Great are you, O Lord, you God of Daniel, and there is none other beside you!”

42So he drew him out, and cast those that were the cause of his destruction into the den; and they were devoured in a moment before his face.